After leaving the White House, Donald Trump decamped to Mar-a-Lago, the club that served as a backdrop to much of his presidency and where he still gets a standing ovation from members in the main dining room. But it’s another Florida property, about an hour and a half south, that’s key to his business empire’s future.
With its four golf courses and sprawling luxury hotel, the Trump National Doral Miami has for years been one of the Trump Organization’s biggest cash cows. Now, it is among the properties suffering most from the Covid-19 pandemic and a contentious presidency capped by a second impeachment.
Revenue at the Florida resort has tumbled, hundreds of workers have been furloughed and the broader Trump brand is under distress. For the billionaire businessman-turned-politician, who bought Doral out of bankruptcy in 2012, the property holds particular importance: It has $125 million in loans coming due in two years that he has personally guaranteed.
Eric Trump, who took the reins of the Trump Organization with his brother Don Jr. after Donald Trump became president, said in an interview that Doral is a highly valuable property that “has been a great success story for our company.”
Less than 10 miles from the Miami airport, the Doral resort splays across the 60,000-person town it’s named for. The place projects a pre-White House version of the Trump brand, evoking more the reality TV character than the man who held the U.S. presidency for four years.
Ornate podocarpus hedges wind around ostentatious fountains, elevator doors shimmer gold and the former-president’s visage—via posters and magazine covers—watches over guests. Trump’s name is on dozens of hats and shirts for sale in the pro shop, but you won’t find any MAGA merchandise.
On a recent sunny Wednesday afternoon, nearly a year after the pandemic upended American life, it was quiet, though not dead. The club’s pools and restaurants had just a few people milling about. Staff said the hotel was running well below normal occupancy, but golf carts could be seen zooming across the links in the shadow of a massive American flag.
As with all resorts, the business has taken a big hit from the coronavirus. Mandatory financial disclosures Trump filed with the Office of Government Ethics show Doral had $44.2 million in revenue last year and the first 20 days of 2021, with the restaurant at the club adding another $1.6 million. While that was more than any other asset Trump lists, it’s a significant decline. Before Covid, the property brought in at least $30 million more annually than it did in 2020.
In March, Doral temporarily laid off or furloughed 560 workers—mostly cooks, servers and housekeepers, according to a government-required notice of layoffs. It made 250 of those layoffs permanent in May. In August, it sent another notice that 88 workers’ temporary furlough would last at least six months.
“This has definitely been the most, or if not the most, one of the most challenging environments the lodging industry has ever gone through,” said Lukas Hartwich, managing director with real estate research firm Green Street, who didn’t comment directly on Trump’s properties. He expects it will take until the middle part of the decade for hotels to recover and longer for places that host many corporate conferences, like Doral.